Murdered? No! “Because they helped me?” She squeezed her hands into tight balls, her fingernails stabbing her palms.
A long moment passed before Drake answered, “I don’t know for sure.”
“But what do you think?”
“It’s possible.”
She swiveled toward him. Conscious of Kaleb sleeping against her, she lowered her voice and said, “What are you not telling me?”
He let out a harsh breath. “From the looks of the crime scene, they were—questioned first.”
Why? What happened to me to lead to their deaths?
For a few seconds, numbness blanketed her, but it quickly melted away. In its place the nice couple’s pain and terror crowded her mind. Tears clogged her throat and stung her eyes. Her chest ached as she drew in shallow breaths. What would that man have done to Kaleb if he’d gotten him away from her? Did he have anything to do with the couple’s murders?
As Drake drove through an open gate onto a gravel road, Kay said, “I can’t stay with your family. Look what happened to the couple who helped me.”
“Clarence and Susan not only helped you but me, too. We have no information to indicate the murders have anything to do with you, though.”
“Then why did you tell me?”
“I wanted you to know the reason I wasn’t with you earlier in the hospital. And I’m not going to act like it doesn’t have anything to do with yesterday, but that’s only one of the possibilities.”
“What other possibilities are there?”
“Some of my work has taken me to Big Bend and the surrounding area. It could be tied to that. Or the couple came across something they shouldn’t have. Maybe they witnessed something that caused them to be murdered.”
“I wonder if I could have.”
He parked his SUV in a three-car garage attached to a sprawling one-story adobe house. “Have you remembered anything?”
“Not really, other than I feel his name is Kaleb.” She looked at the baby, pressed against her content and sleeping, as though he didn’t have a care in the world. “I need to remember more, but no matter how much I try, I can’t.”
The light from the garage illuminated the interior. Drake switched off his vehicle and twisted toward her. His hand clasped the top of her leather seat. “I’m not sure forcing it will make it come faster.”
“You’re right. It’s in God’s hands.”
“Are you a Christian?”
“Yes,” she said without thinking about it.
“Then that’s another thing you remember about yourself.” A smile lit his eyes and drew her attention to his mouth and a dimple nearby.
“Are you a Christian?”
“If it wasn’t for my faith, I don’t know if I could keep doing my job.”
“Why?”
“I often encounter the worst of humanity.”
“Then why do you do it?”
“Because it is what I was called to do.”
Listening to him and watching the assurance in his expression, she wanted that—to know what she was supposed to do and be content in her mission. But at the moment, she didn’t even know her name.
When the overhead garage light went out, Kay gasped and sat up straight, scanning the darkness around them.
Drake opened the driver-side door and the dome light brightened the interior. “It goes off automatically after so many minutes unless I flip the switch by the door.”
“That’s how my garage door works, too.” It came out without Kay thinking about what she’d said.
His eyebrows rose. “You remember where you live?”
She tried to picture the place she was talking about, but she couldn’t. “I don’t know why I said that. I have no idea where I live. In a house? An apartment? Here in Texas or somewhere else?”
“Give it time.”
When he exited the car, she kissed the top of Kaleb’s head, then pushed open her door. Drake rounded the rear of his SUV, waited until she rose, then leaned in and grabbed her backpack, which he’d found in the field behind the café.
“Don’t be surprised if everyone is up to meet you.”
“Who’s everyone?”
“My father, Tom, and younger brother, Frank, as well as our housekeeper, Anna. She’s a second cousin. C’mon. Anna will love having a baby in the house again.”
Kay hesitated. Three strangers. She fortified herself with a deep breath. They were all strangers—except Drake.
At the door into the house, he paused. “For Anna the holidays are the best time of year. She starts with a big Thanksgiving feast and goes nonstop until New Year’s.”
What had she done for Thanksgiving? That had been last week. Who had she shared it with? Who would she share Christmas with? It seemed a long way off, but it was only three and a half weeks away.
Drake held the door for her while she entered the kitchen first. She came to a halt, facing three unfamiliar people. Kay’s heartbeat accelerated.
The older woman with long black hair smiled first and covered the distance to her. “A baby! This will be a special Christmas with the little one here.”
Christmas? She couldn’t stay that long. She had a life somewhere else—hopefully as far from Texas as possible—and needed to get back to it. Would that be enough to keep her and Kaleb safe? As with everything else, she didn’t know. Too many questions. No answers. In her gut, she knew going back to her old life wouldn’t be easy even if she remembered.
“Anna, give the lady time to settle in before bombarding her with your plans for the holiday. I’m Tom Jackson, Drake’s dad.” The older man, with salt-and-pepper hair, stepped forward, holding out his hand for her to shake.
When she did, the strength in his grip reassured her. Drake’s father wasn’t frail. He conveyed the same sense of self-confidence that Drake had. “Thank you for letting me stay here. It shouldn’t be for long. I’m sure I’ll remember who I am soon when things settle down.”
“What’s this fellow’s name?” Tom asked.
“Kaleb.”
As if he heard his name, Kaleb stirred, blinking his eyes, screwing up his face to cry. But the baby’s eyes met hers, and he calmed, wiggling to free himself from the sling.
“Here, let me help you.” Drake disconnected the bottom belt that wrapped around her waist.
His touch grazed across her back when he unclipped each shoulder strap with one hand while helping to support Kaleb against her with his other one. As Drake stood behind her and peered at the child, his warm breath bathed her neck and caused goose bumps to streak up her arms.
He’d saved her life tonight—again.
“I made a pallet for Kaleb until the guys can get the playpen from storage and clean it off.” Anna skirted around Kay and stood at the door into the hallway. “There’s a rocking chair in the bedroom where you’ll be staying with your child. I’ll show you, Kay, while they go to the barn and bring the playpen back here. That’ll keep Kaleb safe in case he wakes up before everyone else.”
“That sounds good. This little one needs his diaper changed and a chance to move around. He’s been confined to the sling for hours.” Kay headed into the corridor, throwing a glance at Drake.
The sear of his gaze held such intensity it robbed her of her next breath. The Lord had picked a good protector for her and Kaleb. It renewed her hope after the harrowing evening evading the man from the hospital.
*
For a few seconds Kay’s fear dominated her expression, but as Drake stared at her in the hallway, slowly a glimmer of light brightened her dark brown eyes. Then she turned away and followed Anna to the guest bedroom.
“I think that’s our cue to go get the playpen,” his dad said while making his way to the back door.
“I didn’t even know we had one anymore.” Drake followed his brother out of the house onto the deck.
“Yep, Mom just couldn’t get rid of it and the crib after I was born.” Frank plopped his hat onto his head. “But our cousin Terri has
the crib.”
As they walked toward the black barn, his father added, “Your mom knew one day we would need them, and as usual, she was right.”
A lump lodged in Drake’s throat. The longing in his dad’s voice brought forth his own sorrow when his mother and wife died. There wasn’t anything he could do to change either death, but he could help Kay, and maybe one day he would have answers concerning his sister’s disappearance. It had been a rough fifteen years for the Jacksons, but he’d had a close-knit family to help him. Kay didn’t, at least not that she remembered. He’d thought he’d lost her tonight, especially when he heard her scream. But he’d been given a second chance to guard her. He hoped someone had done that for his sister Beth.
His younger brother elbowed his arm. “Drake, quit daydreaming. You said on the phone you would give us the details of what happened tonight?”
Drake looked around the barn, half of the stalls empty, wondering how he’d ended up inside. “Just woolgathering, as Grandpa used to say.”
“Thinking about Kay?” His dad swung open the door into the storage area at the back.
“Yeah,” Drake said quickly and then launched into an account of what went down behind the café.
By the time Frank and Drake reached the house’s back door, lugging the square wooden playpen, Drake had finished with the detailed depiction of what happened to Kay and Kaleb.
His dad whistled. “She’s like that she-bear with her two cubs I encountered on a hiking trip. Thankfully she got ’em running away, and she followed rather than charging me. The Lord was looking out for me that day.”
After finding Kay, every protective instinct on high alert, in the grove of trees, Drake could agree with his father. She wasn’t going to surrender without a fight. “Yep, that’s a good description of her, but y’all better not say a word about that to her.”
“You two boys go ahead inside. I forgot something in the barn.”
After his father disappeared across the yard, Drake exchanged a look with his brother. Their father was going back to say good-night to Blue Bonnet and share his day with the mare, as if he were talking to his wife.
“Let’s get moving before the rooster crows.” Frank held the playpen and backed into the kitchen while Drake handled the other end.
Drake saw Anna at the stove. “Where’s Kay?”
“Rocking Kaleb to sleep.”
Drake set his end of the folded playpen down. “Do you want us to put this is the guest bedroom?”
“Only if you’re quiet, which will leave Frank out. Kaleb was fussing when I left. I told Kay I would make a cup of soothing tea for her.”
“Who me? Never.” One side of Frank’s mouth cocked up. His younger brother put his end down, too. “I think I’ll also go check on Blue Bonnet before I head for bed.”
“Where’s Tom?” Anna asked, taking the whistling kettle off the burner.
“He went back to the barn to see Blue Bonnet,” Drake said.
“Ah, that’s why Frank went back down there. He’s worried your dad will never move on.”
“What do you think?”
“He will when he’s ready. You of all people should know that.”
Because he and his father had both lost their wives. He supposed Anna was right. “I’ll take this back to the guest bedroom.”
“We moved the bed over so you can put it on the left side of it.”
He heaved the playpen up and maneuvered his way into the corridor, careful not to bang a wall. He wanted to make things as easy as he could for Kay. When he neared the room, he heard Kay’s soft voice singing the words to “Mary, Did You Know.” He slowed his steps, not wanting to disturb her, especially since he loved that Christmas song. He set the playpen down against the wall. When her gentle words ended, Drake remained in place in case she wanted to sing something else.
When she didn’t, he peered around the doorjamb. His heart tightened into a fist that seemed to swell in his chest.
Silent tears ran down Kay’s cheeks.
Did she remember who she was?
FIVE
While rocking in the guest bedroom chair, Kay cradled Kaleb against her, shutting her eyes to stem the tears running down her face. After she had changed his diaper, the baby still whined, and she’d thought he was hungry. But when Anna fixed a bottle and brought it to her, he didn’t want it. The only thing that calmed him was rocking and singing softly. The first song that popped into her mind was “Silent Night,” then “Away in a Manger” and finally “Mary, Did You Know.” She had no idea where the lyrics had come from, but they had soothed Kaleb.
They’d also calmed her as she’d listened to their message. She couldn’t stop the deluge of feelings from all she’d experienced since waking up yesterday—alone and terrified. Both she and Kaleb could have been killed earlier tonight. Why couldn’t she remember anything about her past to help identify her? Their lives depended on her recalling. And yet her mind remained blank. She couldn’t fall apart. She would find the answers to her problem—for herself and for Kaleb.
When she opened her eyes, her gaze connected with Drake’s. He stood in the doorway, his hand clasped around the end of a playpen. The thumping of her heartbeat against her rib cage increased. The kindness in his gaze nearly unraveled the composure she’d fought so hard to retain despite what she was going through.
He smiled and pointed at what he held. She waved him into the room. While his back was to her, she quickly swiped her hand across her face. Had he seen her crying? She didn’t want him to worry that she would lose it. She’d dealt with difficult situations and hadn’t fallen apart. She wouldn’t now, either.
How did she know that? Another tidbit about herself out of the blue, or was it only wishful thinking?
As Drake set the playpen up next to the bed and placed the pallet in it, she shoved away all the questions plaguing her and rose. He stepped away to allow her to lay Kaleb down. For a few seconds, her hand hovered a couple of inches above the baby. When he didn’t move or fuss, she straightened, stretching to work the kinks out of her back muscles, then she moved toward the hallway.
Drake followed. “Are you okay? I saw—”
“I was thinking about the words to the songs I sing to Kaleb. They touched me deeply.” Hoping he wouldn’t ask anything else, she started down the corridor toward the kitchen.
He came up beside her. “They touched me, too. You have a beautiful voice.”
“Thank you. I was just glad Kaleb responded to my singing.” Kay entered the kitchen and crossed to the kettle on the stove. A mug sat on the counter with a tea bag in it. “Where did Anna go?”
“Back to bed. She’s usually the first to go in the evening because she’s an early riser—unless I pull an all-nighter. Then I’m up when she gets up.”
Kay took a sip of the warm tea, relishing the soothing taste. “I hope I can sleep tonight. I’m exhausted, but I can’t right now. Too wired.”
“I’ve gotten so tired before that I can’t sleep. Then when I crash, it’s hard to wake me up.”
She lounged back against the counter. “I hate to ask, but I need a favor.”
“I want you to feel you can tell me anything. Ask me anything. I’m here to help.”
Kay moved to the kitchen table and sat. When Drake joined her, she finally got up the nerve to say, “I’d like to go back to Big Bend to where you found me.”
“That could be risky.”
“I know, but I thought it might help me to remember how I got there. Why I was in the park with a baby in the first place. Have the park rangers found any vehicles unaccounted for? Or a backpack?”
“Not that I’ve heard. They’re supposed to let me know if they find something that might be tied to you.”
“Either I drove or walked in. What if I had a campsite somewhere? Maybe near where you found me? I didn’t have many belongings at the hospital. You don’t go hiking, especially with a baby, without certain items—like water. What if someone left me
in the park without water, food or hats for Kaleb and me? I can’t see me going into it without those supplies and others, especially with a baby.” She leaned forward. “Even if I was only going for the day, I would have had more stuff with me.”
“Those are all good questions, but with the deaths of Susan and Clarence, I don’t think you should go there.”
She barely remembered the nice couple, but their murders weighed heavily on her. “Their deaths only emphasize that something very serious is going on. How will I ever be safe if we don’t get to the bottom of what’s wrong? I have to do what I can to protect Kaleb.” As she said the last sentence, she sensed that had been her goal from the very beginning of whatever happened to her. She couldn’t shake the sensation, just like she’d known instinctively the man from the hospital was after her, and that had turned out to be true.
Lines creased Drake’s forehead. “Let me investigate. That’s my job.”
“If I had good information on what was going on, I’d let you handle everything. But my memory loss is impeding the investigation. I must remember who I am. The park may be the key.”
“What about Kaleb? Are you going to leave him while we go?”
Now it was her turn to frown. She hadn’t thought beyond revisiting the place where Drake had found her. Should she leave Kaleb at the ranch? Could she? “I can’t take him back to the park. I’d leave him with the right caregiver if he was safe. Until tonight at the café, I’d been hoping I was overreacting to that man showing up in my hospital room. But now I know I wasn’t. Maybe if he’s caught we can go or…” She shrugged. “I don’t know what to do. That’s the problem.”
Drake covered her clasped hands on the table. “How about this. Give it a day or two to see if your attacker is tracked down. The police are splashing his photo all over the media in the area. The guy not only came after you and Kaleb, but he injured one of their own.”
The feel of his touch reinforced she had someone to help her. She smiled. “Thank you. I don’t know what I would have done without you. I should have kept calling until I got hold of you earlier instead of panicking.”
Lone Star Christmas Rescue Page 5